Topic: Archiving and downloading PunBB forums
Some months ago, I created two projects for creating backups and archives for PunBB forums:
PunBBArchiver
PunBBArchiver is a set of PHP and Python scripts that create a plain-text archive of a PunBB board. There is a text file for each post (containing BB-code), and the files are organized in directories by category and thread. The archive should automatically be zipped and it should be possible to create one every day, so that users can download a recent backup file anytime. You can download example archives at McDuck.nl forum archives.
PunBBDownloader
PunBBDownloader is a set of Python scripts that can be used to download the content of PunBB boards and create usable plain-HTML archives of them. The archives are browsable just like real PunBB boards, but users cannot sign in, post messages, change things or search. You can use it to offer a (downloadable) archive of your (closed) forums or to download forums owned by other people who do not publish an archive themselves. An example of a PunBBDownloader-archived board: Off-topic.
Both archive types have their own advantages and disadvantages. They both are based on open standards though, which means that they'll probably still be useful after 50 years (in contrast to a PunBB forum which needs specific versions of PHP, a database system and PunBB itself).
I know there is some interest in these tools, but I'm not interested in further developing them. So I am wondering whether there are people from the PunBB/FluxBB community who want to take over, finish and maintain them. I will help them getting started with my code (if a complete rewrite isn't needed). It would be even better if something like this can be 'officially' built into PunBB/FluxBB -- it would become the first forum system where people's contributions don't eventually get lost.